knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."

Let me exhort you, then, diligently to inquire what satisfactory evidence you possess that the cross of Christ has been made to you the "power of God;" whether you can exclaim with all the fervour of the apostle of the Gentiles, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world ;" or whether you may not have rejected the preaching of that cross as foolishness. The question is indeed most momentous. Call to mind, I beseech you, the tremendous doom of those by whom it is so rejected. They perish; they place themselves beyond the pale of salvation; they shall be destroyed at the last; they reject the only method whereby their souls can be saved; they put from them the only instrument whereby they can be delivered from the wrath to come; they refuse to receive the only message which speaks peace to a distracted conscience; the only balm which can soothe a troubled spirit, and bind up a broken heart. Beware, then, lest the gospel which has been preached unto you, should not profit, not being mixed with faith in you who have heard it; beware lest the god of this world should blind your

minds, "lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them." Call to mind, on the other hand, the invaluable privileges and the supreme felicity of those to whom the preaching of the cross is made the power of God; they are saved from the punishment justly due to their offences, and from the woes denounced against the transgressors of the divine law; they are saved with a free, and full, and perfect salvation, and are made partakers of the joy unspeakable of the world to come. Judge, then, yourselves, brethren, that ye be not judged of the Lord. Embrace that offer of pardoning mercy, which is set before you in the gospel let all your hopes of acceptance be founded on the merits of your adorable Redeemer. Receive him as he is offered to you in the gospel, as your Prophet to teach you, your Priest who has atoned for you, and your King to rule over you. Jesus is now knocking at the door of your hearts—he is now waiting to be gracious; he is now inviting you to look to him and be saved. Listen to the invitation; open your hearts to receive him, and be assured that he will never leave, never forsake you; that he will be yours in life and in death, in time and in eternity. In life he will be your guide, in death your stay, and after death your abiding portion; for his love is as unchangeable as his nature, and he to whom the preaching of

his cross is made the power of God, shall wear that crown which the exalted Immanuel promises to bestow on all those who love his appearing. Whether the preaching of the cross is foolishness to us or no, it has been the power of God to myriads who have long heard its joyful sound, who have exchanged a mortal for an immortal existence, and it shall be that power to myriads who are yet unborn. Heaven shall not want inhabitants, although we may never tread its blessed courts;* these courts shall resound with the loud hosannahs of the ransomed, although ours may be the wailing and gnashing of teeth. The Redeemer shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. Many shall come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the Saviour's kingdom, who shall through a joyful eternity bear their testimony to the power of the cross, which shall have triumphed over their corruptions, and raised them, who were by nature children of wrath even as others, to the high and holy dignity of "heirs of God and jointheirs with Christ," which shall have brought them to Zion "with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads ;" and made them "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."

"Nor think, though men were noue,

That heaven would want spectators, God want praise."-Milton.

SERMON II.

CONSCIENCE.

GENESIS iii. 8, 10.

"And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid."

It is difficult to conceive a more perfect, and at the same time, a more simple illustration of the truth of the wise man's assertion, that "the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion," than is afforded by the first unhappy pair immediately after their transgression. Whilst in a state of innocence, intercourse with their Almighty Creator must

have constituted their highest enjoyment, even while surrounded with every terrestrial blessing, "made but a little lower than the angels," and "having dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." No sooner, however, did they taste of the fruit of the tree of knowledge through the subtlety of the serpent, in direct opposition to the divine command, than that communion was interrupted. A total

change took place in the minds of Adam and his wife. The ground was not only cursed for their sakes, but the effect of the curse pervaded their feelings and affections; passions to which they were before strangers now gained possession of their bosoms; the thorns and the briers which grew up to mar the beauty and impede the fruitfulness of the garden in which they had been placed, were emblematical of the evil desires which sprang up in their hearts-hearts, from the supremacy of which, the Lord Jehovah was now dethroned. The best of friends was now shunned as an enemy; fear occupied the place of love; and forgetful that the eye of Omniscience is every where present, and that to Jehovah "the night is clear as the day," they vainly sought to elude his presence by retirement to some thicket amidst the trees of the garden. But the attempt was fruitless. They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the